Waverley 4s 5-15 Border Reivers
Graham Bensted 3-0 Keith Miller
In the first match of the night Bensted and Miller played out at thriller, although the score was 3-0 for Bensted, it didn’t tell the story of the match as the games couldn’t have been any closer 15-13, 15-13, 17-15. Both players were evenly matched fitness and skill wise and it was nip and tuck for most of the match. Bensteds legendary fast serves worked for him at key times though and he managed to take a match that could really have went either way.
Del Sharratt 0-3 Dave Russell
Russell was filing in at 4 covering for several injuries from Waverley regulars and he wasn’t too confident of defeating Sharratt. But Sharratt seemed to be out of sorts and couldn’t find his usual rhythm or movement. Sharratt couldn’t find the back of the court with his shots and Russell would return everything from the middle of the court, Russell took the first 15-10. In the second Sharratt mad a conscious effort to put more length in his shots by playing higher up the front wall but the shots were loose and Sharratt couldn’t cover the court as he normally does and Russell won 15-12. In the third game Sharratt was getting frustrated with himself and started swiping at the serves and his head went down, Russell cleaned up with a relatively straight forward 15-4.
Stuart Johnston 1-3 Pat Spence
Spence went into this one high on confidence after a good couple of victories recently and the first game Spence didn’t seem to put a foot wrong and his shots were controlled and placed and the textbook squash won him the game 15-6. In the second game, Johnston commanded the T-Line more and would make Spence do all the running about, this tactic was to tire Spence out with the running and the heat in the hotter courts which Johnston was more used to. Although Spence again played controlled shots, Johnston would send him round the court and sneaked it 16-14. The third game Johnston was adopting the same tactic of making Spence run around; but Spence is deceptively fit and stamina is no problem to the Veteran; a few of Spences usually controlled shots were low and hit the tin but this game was mush the same as the previous only with Spence triumphing 15-12 for a 2-1 advantage. The fourth game started with Johnston exploding off to a 4-0 lead but the Reivers Vice Captain plodded through the game ands made Johnston do more running, the rallies were longer in this one and this seemed to suit Spence better as a couple of deft drop shots won him the tie 15-13.
Amir Hosny 3-0 Neil Kempsell
This was another 3-0 match that was closer than the scores suggests, 15-13, 15-13, 15-10. Hosny managed to control the rallies and this was a story of some long tight shots as neither player seemed to like drop shots. This made for some long rallies and when Hosny had Kempsell pinned to the back of the court he would throw in the occasional boast to wrong foot Kempsell and Win the rally. Although the game was close Hosny always looked like he could step up a gear if needed and was in control throughout.
Tony Elliot 3-1 Ed Granville
Elliot had a shocking start to this match, Granville was 7-0 up in a matter of seconds as Elliot just seemed to be switched off, Elliot did get going but was too far behind to catch up, it went to 12-7 and 15-12 for Granville. But normal order was resumed in the rest of the match as Elliot found his mojo and proved he was the far more skilful player by rattling the games off 15-4, 15-0, 15-6. Granville had played a match for Waverley 3s prior to this and was half a yard slower than usual but after a shocking start Elliot barely put a foot wrong and this took the match for the Border Reivers.
Gala Captain Sharratt said afterwards “Apart from myself the team played really well. I don’t know what I was playiung during my game but it wasn’t squash! This is a great away victory for us and we head to The Grange next looking for 3 wins in a row.